Blogs

In last weeks’ edition of the Earlham Word, my dear friend Vania Frederico wrote an article in response to my earlier article on how Pan Africanism should be the emphasis of Black History.  Vania disagreed with my vision of Pan Africanism and how it could be used as a uniting force for the African Diaspora.  Vania stated her belief that, “…The discourse on a common history of oppression and the umbilical tie to the motherland is not as compelling in the contemporary age” thusly what she proposed was, “…a more thoughtful and conscientious unity based more on today’s concerns.”   Vania went on to later say that we need to, “…start redirecting our discourse towards contemporary social issues and common struggles among Black peoples.”  Namely, “unequal distributions of wealth and opportunities among whites and peoples of color in any given country, disproportionately high numbers of single mothers and families headed by women in Black communities and high levels of unemployment among men of color.”  In addition to tackling prejudicial stereotypes against people of the African Diaspora and narrowing our gaze to focus on local challenges many of us face. 

            Anyways, to the response!  I would like to begin by thanking Vania for responding to my article in this respectfully critical manner and I agree with much of what she says.   This is how things get thought out effectively in civil society and I am happy that an individual with her high intellectual caliber found time to respond to my public musings. 

The main point I take issue with in Vania’s piece is that the common bonds we as people of the African Diaspora share, namely a common heritage with the continent and shared social oppression aren’t enough to bring us together.  This I believe is a problematic viewpoint to take and is one that those who wish to keep us down love to hear.  Slave buyers and slave owners in the Americas and Europe never wanted their goods (slaves) to feel a connection to where they were taken from which is why our ancestors names were changed, captured slaves from the same tribes and families were divided and we were scattered across the Americas.  The institution of slavery sought to sever the Diaspora’s connection with itself and indeed they almost succeeded.  They failed because those bonds can never be cut and we as a Diaspora have been healing and continue to heal from this amputation to this day.  And Pan Africanism is the vehicle through which we can fully complete this healing amongst ourselves and the rest of the world that kept us in chains. 

I acknowledge I did not define Pan Africanism well last time so let us try again highlighting the key themes that are its founding principles; namely, the creation of a strong, democratic, and economically powerful African political entity and the promotion for the unity of the diverse peoples of the African Diaspora; the second part being exactly in harmony with Vania’s vision.  But what I wish to point out is that never once is there a mention here of black people uniting as Vania alludes to in her article, but I guess this confusion is easy to see as Pan Africanism is still a very foggy term that has had many flavors over the last hundred years.  Indeed I wrote the article in Black History month as a tribute to the blacks who founded Pan Africanism but Pan Africanism is by no means an exclusive racial philosophy.  Much to the contrary, it is as George Padmore described, “a dynamic political philosophy”.  It understands that people of the African Diaspora, including Africans, find themselves today economically disadvantaged, socially oppressed and politically shunned. 

Pan Africanism is concerned with achieving justice for everybody with a concentration on the Diaspora.  Indeed there is not as Vania puts it, “…a vision and clear sense of its commonness” due to our history but it is one that we need to cultivate and develop nonetheless.  Pan Africanism does have tangible solutions for the struggles the African Diaspora faces today and is a method for us to uplift ourselves from inequality and oppression.  The creation of an African State as I proved in my Senior Politics Thesis is pivotal as a protector of the Diaspora as W.E.B Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah understood.  Its creation is a lofty goal but is one that I believe the Diaspora must fight for. 

Pan Africanism is the key to the world becoming a better place due to its concern with bettering the condition the African Diaspora currently finds itself in.  What people like me, Vania, B.L.U.E. and other individuals and groups are concerned about and struggle for is the fight for justice to be given to all human beings that inhabit this earth.  We believe in the inherent equality of all women and men in our immense diversity that varies like the spectrum of light.  With this as our core inspiration and belief we extend our hand in friendship towards anyone willing to accept it and will continue to do so in order to as Vania pointed out fight the “Common struggles” we all as human beings face.